As a child, I once read this little story about a kid who was trying to fit in at school. When someone asked to trade a broken toy for his brand new toy, he obliged. He traded the kind of sandwich he liked for a sandwich he didn’t like in attempt to make friends. By the end of the day, he found himself in complete despair because he didn’t have any friends or any of the good things he brought to school.
Simply put, he exchanged what was good for what was bad.
In Romans 1:21-23, Paul talks about our attitude towards God in how worship Him. When we place other things in the place of God’s sovereignty, we are, “exchang[ing] the glory of God for images made to look like mortal man, and birds and animals” (Romans 1:23). The idols of Paul’s time looked a bit different than our idols today, but the truth stands in any social context. If we want to worship God, we must worship God alone. If we exchange God for something else, we are exchanging the everlasting for the temporal, the beautiful for the ugly and the perfect for the tarnished. No matter how great the idol may appear, it will never satisfy as our Father does and it will always leave us wanting more.
So the challenge is to look inward. Ask yourself:
In what ways am I exchanging the glory of God for something far less satisfying?
-SHF
